Vietnam visa on arrival - scam or not
September 26, 2009
We recently received a lot of emails around the questions “is visa on arrival a scam?”, “is visa on arrival legit?” ” why the embassy told me that it is not legit and a fraud?” and “which agents do you recommend?” and so on.
After a month of investigation, our answers to those questions are below:
1. is visa on arrival legit?
yes, it is. visa on arrival is legitimate and stated in Vietnam immigration laws: http://www.mofa.gov.vn/vi/ct_lanhsu/vbpl/nr040831084533/copy2_of_ns040830162648 - so it is endorsed by the Vietnamese Government. Our staff were at the airport (Hanoi airport) on 23rd of Sept, to look around the process at airport, there were NO problem and it took just 10 minutes to get the visa stamp. (we interviewed a few travelers using visa on arrival and will post it soon here)
2. why the embassy told me that it is not legit and a fraud?
After reviewing and interviewing some travel agents who handle VOA service, our guess is that VOA competes directly with the embassy services, so it is not referred by the embassy.
3. which agents we recommend?
We recommend a few agents including My Vietnam Visa and Vietnam Visa but if you used other company and found it good, feel free to recommend it here by commenting below or drop us an email.
We know that we may not have been answering all of your concerns regarding VOA, however, you are welcome to post your questions below.
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Great info! It would be helpful and reassuring if you posted the pics and video of the process too. Thanks for the post!
I booked my visa through My Vietnam Visa and it was incredibly easy. Everybody I spoke to thought it sounded like a scam but it was so easy, and fast! I spent more time queuing to go through customs than it took to get my visa. It wasn’t even that expensive- not too much more than booking through the embassy.
Are there restrictions for certain countries to use this online service? I am a Kenyan national planning to visit Vietnam soon